MARCH OF THE PALMS

IN THE spring of 1935 a double file of palms marched out of Tempe to Lone Palm service station. Since then thousands and more thousands of growing things have marched along the highway and taken their positions just off the pavement-sixty-five miles of them in the Salt River Valley alone and miles more throughout the state.

Oh, no, all of these trees and shrubs didn't just take a notion to go and live by the side of the road; the Landscape Division of the Arizona Highway Department arranged all that, with Fred Guirey as landscape engineer and Oakley Jordan chief planter-out. Some job, too.

Consider the difficulties first. They did. Arizona is an unusual state, with as many moods as a wilful woman. That thirty-five miles of native pine, oak, juniper and aspen newly located on Highway 66, between Flagstaff and Winslow, are happy enough up there, but bring them south and give them into the keeping of the desert and could it not, or could it, make them most uncomfortable in its own quaint way? Naturally, the landscapers adopted, first thing, a broad platform of co-operating with nature, but remember, 3500 miles of highway can run all over the place and change altitudes and planting requirements so fast and so often that it takes more than a broad platform to make the vast project a success. It takes knowledge, experience, judgment and plenty of planning.

Besides, try co-operating with the desert. It's a one-sided business, not to be taken lightly. The desert has never come by any of its possessions easily and, in exact proportion, it resists giving up anything it has. There are a few trees out there, it is true, but their roots are so important to them that they send them down incredibly deep with a determination to keep them down or die trying.

Even the desert shrubs, like the lovely creosote, have discouraging root habits, all of which means that about the only way native desert growth can be utilized by landscapers, except in the case of the cactus, is by propagation from seed. This, it would seem, might have slowed down the whole propect for years. It did not.

They established a nursery one-fourth of a mile north of Glendale Avenue on lateral 17, and right there J. C. Whittaker and Verne Helms proceeded forthwith to put one over on the desert in a big way. It was started from nothing in July, 1936, and the planting of seeds and cuttings began in September of that year. If you are interested in origins and in all manner of young things drive out there. You'll find five of the busiest acres you ever saw at work. Not only all sorts of native desert species are breaking speed records for growing but plants from all the arid parts of the world are rapidly qualifying for Arizona citizenship. Already page Mr. Ripley 1600 Washingtonia robusta and 1600 Washingtonia felifera palms have been set along roadsides in the Salt River Valley alone and there are rows and rows more at the nursery ready to be moved. By the way, will somebody explain to everybody why the Washingtonia robusta is hereabouts commonly conceded to be that tall slim palm which at the end of 35 years has a trunk only one foot in diameter and a height of 85 feet, while the felifera is pointed out as that elephantlegged individual that isn't called a robusta at all? I can't.

The robust one, the felifera, is a native of southern California and the first printed record of it is in (Major W. W.) Emory's Reconnaissance, 1848. His party of weary explorers, after crossing the Colorado desert at last came to a spring called Ojo Grande and a few miles further on found palms growing at the head of Carrizo Canyon, now known as Palm Springs. Most of these men were from Florida and they thought they were meeting friends from home so they called these the California Fan-palm and let it go at that. Thirty-three years later Dr. H. Wendland, an eminent palmographer from Europe, christened them Washingtonia "in honor of the great American"and felifera meaning "thread-bearing" you know, those long tan threads that dangle eternally from the edges of the leaf division.

Now, with due deference to a lot of people who have talked palms to me, I want to quote two statements made by the sure-footed Charles Francis Saunders in his book, "Trees and Shrubs of California Gardens." The first is only partof a sentence: "Commonly known as California Fan-palms, it is to botanists Washingtonia felifera robusta" The second quotation is as follows-take it or leave it: "Often confused with the California Fan-palm and frequently planted with it, is its graceful cousin, Washingtonia gracilis (which nurserymen have a way of listing as Washing-